School corporal punishment is legal in 19 states, many of them in the south. Those states are: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming.

State statute includes guidelines and limitations on corporal punishment:

▪ Corporal punishment cannot be administered in a classroom with other students present;

▪ Only an agent of the state — a teacher, principal or assistant principal — can administer corporal punishment and must do so in the presence of someone else in those categories;

▪ The school must notify the student’s parent that corporal punishment has been administered and the person who administered the punishment must provide a written explanation of why, and name the witness who was present;

▪ The school must keep a record of each instance of corporal punishment;

▪ Excessive force, or force that causes injury to the student that requires medical attention beyond simple first aid, is prohibited;

▪ If a parent does not want a school to use physical pain to discipline their child, the parent must fill out a form at the beginning of the school year. If the form is not completed, the school is allowed to hit the student.

“The form shall advise the parent or guardian that the student may be subject to suspension, among other possible punishments, for offenses that would otherwise not require suspension if corporal punishment were available,” North Carolina law states.

Still an active form of punishment

Corporal punishment was not just a rule still on the books in Robeson and Graham counties.

Students were actively being spanked, paddled and otherwise struck as of last school year.

The state saw a 2.7 percent increase from the previous year in the number of students struck by a school employee.

Corporal punishment was used 41 times in Robeson County and 34 times in Graham County during the 2016-17 school year, state records show.

Of the 75 times schools used corporal punishment in 2016-17:

▪ 66 were male students and 9 were female students.

▪ Most students struck were Native American (41), followed by white students (30), and then black (2) and Hispanic students (2).

By far most students in Robeson and Graham county schools are white and American Indian, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Robeson County is home to the Lumbee tribe.

▪ Most students were in fourth grade, followed by 11th and 12th grade. But there were at least two incidents of corporal punishment at every grade level.

▪ 10 — more than 13 percent — were students with disabilities.

The leading causes of students being struck were: leaving/skipping school (24 students), insubordination (16) and “aggressive behavior” (11). Other causes included: disruptive behavior, disorderly conduct, disrespect of staff and “other.”

State law on corporal punishment does not define causes such as insubordination or disrespect.

The number of students punished corporally has fallen dramatically. In the 2008-09 school year, 679 students were physically punished and that number has continued to steadily decline statewide.

Parents want to continue spanking

Members of one of the school’s parent-teacher organization spoke against repealing the ability to strike students.

“At a recent meeting, we polled parents,” Eric Freeman, president of the Prospect Elementary School PTO said at the board of education meeting on Tuesday, according to The Robesonian. “One hundred parents asked that the policy not be changed, and zero voted to stop spanking.”

Freeman did not say how many of the school’s parents were present at that meeting.

School board member Brenda Fairley-Ferebee said it is the school’s job to educate and a parent’s job to discipline, The Robesonian reported.

“If they do that, there would not be problems in school,” she said.

A ‘last resort’

Robeson County’s student handbook says that corporal punishment is a “last resort” and should only be employed “in cases where other means of securing cooperation from the student have failed.”

Students are to be afforded “minimal due process” in cases of corporal punishment, including confronting the student and allowing the student to verbally defend themselves when accused.

The school system also requires that a student be warned before they are struck.

Robeson County’s handbook says that students may only be struck “upon the buttocks.”

“Slapping or striking a child about the head or face is strictly forbidden, as is the vigorous shaking of a child by the shoulders,” the handbook says.